GLADYS CARRIÓN, Esq. – “I am so grateful to CCFY’s work in pursuit of thoughtful, creative and, most importantly, effective alternatives to incarceration. The work and findings presented in this report will be of great use as we continue our work to reform New York City’s juvenile justice system.”

JAMES BELL, Esq. – “CCFY’s work demonstrates not only that communities of color are willing and able to engage system stakeholders, but that they often do a better job at preventing recidivism than the juvenile justice system itself.”

NELL BERNSTEIN – “CCFY’s work demonstrates why keeping young people involved in a supportive (and supported) network of family members, neighborhood mentors and positive, community-minded peers is far preferable to locking them up.”

JOSHUA DUBOIS – “The fight for young men and women of color requires that faith and neighborhood organizations in every community redouble their efforts to engage and mentor youth. The South Bronx Community Connections project demonstrates an effective blueprint for this type of work.”

LIZ RYAN – “The evaluation of CCFY’s program demonstrates unequivocally that communities, neighborhoods, and families are the solution … Policymakers need to act on this research by divesting from youth incarceration and instead, investing in community-based approaches such as CCFY.”

NEWS

Community capacity building refers to efforts to strengthen the ability of local community organizations to support, serve and supervise young people with juvenile justice system involvement as a strategy for reducing reliance on youth incarceration.Jurisdictions that engage in community capacity building build partnerships between system and community stakeholders to develop community-based alternatives to incarceration.